National news

Isaac near hurricane force as it heads for Florida

RobertDaniel

KateGibson

Reuters

A woman wades through floodwaters Saturday near her home in Port au Prince, Haiti. Tropical Storm Isaac dumped torrential rains on Haiti, where thousands of people remain homeless more than two years after a devastating earthquake.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Tropical Storm Isaac threatened to grow into a hurricane Sunday as it headed toward Florida, prompting emergency preparations and a delay in the start of the Republican National Convention scheduled to begin Monday in Tampa.

Media reports say the storm swept across Haiti on Saturday, killing at least four people, and later crossed over Cuba.

In a statement at 2 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said that the center of Isaac was located 265 miles east-southeast of Key West, Fla. The storm had winds up to 60 miles an hour and was moving northwest at 17 miles an hour.

Hurricane warnings have been issued for the Bahamas, the Florida Keys, and parts of the west and east coast of Florida. A hurricane warning means that Isaac could reach hurricane force, sustained winds of 75 miles an hour or more, within 24 hours.

Isaac should reach the Keys on Sunday and should be at or near hurricane strength when it does, the center said.

Floods near the coast are possible and isolated tornadoes may form over parts of central and southern Florida and the Keys on Sunday, the center said.

State of emergency

Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Saturday declared a state of emergency for the state, saying the storm threatens the state, its 19 million residents, and its tourists and other visitors with a major disaster. Media reports quote Scott as saying at a briefing that the state is prepared for problems arising from the storm.

The start of the Republican National Convention, set for Tampa on Monday, has been moved to Tuesday because of the storm. Republicans delay convention.

The utility company FPL
NEE, -0.18%
said in a Saturday statement that it has activated its emergency-response plan and it urged its customers to prepare for power outages that could result from the storm.

The Port of Miami said it would close on Sunday and reopen at an as-yet unspecified time on Monday. The port is one of the busiest in the U.S., servicing some 20 shipping lines providing cargo transport and cruises.

“Pray for the best but prepare for the worst. Things have changed in the last 24 hours, things have shifted over to the right and to the east, and we may have a hurricane instead of just a tropical storm,” Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said Saturday in urging residents to prepare for a possible hurricane strike on Miami.

Energy producers

The Gulf of Mexico accounts for 23% of total U.S. crude-oil production, 7% of natural-gas production, the U.S. Department of Energy says. More than 40% of the nation’s refining capacity is contained in facilities located along the Gulf Coast from Mississippi to Texas.

Among energy producers operating in the area, BP PLC
BP, -1.52%
(BP.) was evacuating all crew members from its Thunder Horse platform, and other offshore facilities in the Mississippi Canyon, including Na Kika, Horn Mountain and Marlin, and had “temporarily suspended oil and natural gas production there,” BP spokesman Arturo Silva emailed Saturday afternoon.

Apache Corp.
APA, -1.49%
said on Friday that it was closely following the storm and was evacuating nonessential personnel.

Chevron Corp.
CVX, -1.29%
was evacuating nonessential workers from some offshore facilities in the Gulf of Mexico, where production had not been affected, the company said in an update Friday afternoon.

Williams Cos.
WMB, -1.80%WPZ, -3.21%
had said on Friday that based on the storm’s expected path, the company expected to shut down three platforms in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and evacuate its staff on Sunday or Monday.

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